The 3 Essential Ingredients For Long-Term Happy Clients written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing
Agency Spark Podcast with David Gersh
The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode is designed to spark ideas you can put into practice for your agency today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!
In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara interviews David Gersh, founder of Outreach Local Marketing. Previous to starting Outreach, David built and sold 3 other businesses over the past 25 years. His main focus in those businesses was sales & marketing.
Questions Sara asks David Gersh:
- Tell me a little about your story and how you’ve launched and sold three businesses prior to where you’re at today?
- Do you have a niche or do you work with a range of local businesses?
- What’s been the most successful marketing tactic for growing your agency?
- How have you made the combination of direct mail and cold calling successful?
- How do you keep getting long retainer clients while other agency’s struggle?
- Is there an area or tactic that you see a lot of local businesses wasting their marketing budget on?
Learn more about David Gersh:
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B2B influencer marketing continues to evolve, and SMEs in some industries aren’t always going to be found solely on the traditional social media platforms of LinkedIn*, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Many industries have attracted an infusion of newly-minted marketing professionals, and the SMEs they consider influential may frequent an entirely different set of online communication platforms, which could be any of the following or others:
Perhaps even more than in B2C marketing, B2B influencers have increasingly formed mostly private groups that serve as communication tools for refining and driving the long-term success of influencer marketing. Sometimes driving industry knowledge and empowering influencers are also tackled by more public groups, such as the popular Adobe Insiders program. “Working with a small group of influencers can be a great place to start, but that small group should be backed by a much larger list of researched candidate influencers. As relationships develop through the course of different collaborations, B2B marketers will refine and find the right influencers. A VIP group of influencers might be created as Adobe has with its 60+ Adobe Insiders being activated at individual, small group or large group levels depending on the situation,” our CEO and co-founder 
By mentoring the next generations of marketing influencers, you’ll not only help new SMEs develop, but also continue your own lifelong learning. Influencer marketing is a two-way street when it comes to mentoring opportunities. “I think it’s really important that people seek out a person who is going to be a champion for them if they want to advance and grow their career,” 
In this episode of the 
This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network.
2021 State of B2B Digital Marketing [Report] The number one digital marketing trend B2B brands are prioritizing is the utilization of new social platforms, while 57 percent of marketers said that social media was seen as the area of digital customer experience that had the most impact on overall strategic success, according to newly-released B2B digital marketing report data. 
A lighthearted look at the “customer lifetime value” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — 
“88 percent of marketers agree their social strategy positively influences their bottom line,” the research concludes. The value of social data has generally increased over time, and the new Sprout Social study bears this out, revealing that 47 percent of marketers consider social a resource that influences strategy for multiple organizational teams, while 46 still see it as strictly a marketing resource, with eight percent viewing it as an organization-wide resource for business intelligence. Something as seemingly simple as responding quickly to customer questions can be very important in brand purchase decisions. 47 percent of consumers said that responding to customer service questions in a timely manner was the top way brands could get them to buy and forgo competitors. Nearly as important among consumers were brands that demonstrate an understanding of what consumers want and need. “Nine out of 10 consumers will buy from brands they follow on social, while 86% will choose that brand over a competitor,” the Sprout Social report data showed. Given the importance customers place on speedy response times from brands, it’s easy to see how the new Sprout Social data indicated that “78 percent of consumers agree that social media is the fastest and most direct way to connect with a brand — and consumers want their voices heard.” When it comes to sharing feedback about a product or service, after social media, consumers turn to e-mail and a brand’s website (18 percent for each), followed closely by review websites, and just 11 percent prefer calling a brand’s customer service phone number, according to the report data. Even for reaching brands about customer service issues or questions, most consumers (33 percent) prefer social media, followed by customer service (24 percent), e-mail (23 percent), and just nine percent prefer using a company’s website for such questions. 
“44 percent of consumers will unfollow a brand on social because of poor service, putting a damper on brands’ growth goals,” the report warned. The Sprout Social study surfaces a fascinating distinction between what consumers and marketers believe makes for best-in-class social media performance. The most important factor among consumers — at 47 percent — was brands that offer strong customer service, while that was only the sixth most important factor to marketers, at 35 percent.
“Brands embraced new social platforms, virtual events, and influencer marketing strategies that can open the door to new opportunities to drive brand awareness and grow new audiences,” the report suggested. A robust 68 percent of B2B marketers said they expected their digital marketing budgets to increase during the forthcoming year, with 26 percent seeing a significant budget increase ahead, according to the report data. When it comes to driving revenue, 57 percent of B2B marketers saw social media as the most effective digital marketing channel, followed by content marketing and email, each at 47 percent. Reinforcing the notion supported by the other research we’ve examined, the Ascend2 and Wpromote data showed that social media was the area of digital customer experience that had the most impact on overall strategic success, according to 57 percent of respondents — ahead of website optimization’s 47 percent and paid advertising’s 42 percent. “Whatever social platforms you use as a B2B marketer, if you prioritize the time and resources to add new social platforms to your mix, you increase the opportunity to build new audiences and further engage with your existing audience," 
Bringing many of these trends and tactics together, account-based marketing (ABM) — or even account based experiences (ABX), as our CEO 
LinkedIn's* 